Looking back at the 2012 season

In the 2012 MotoGP season, Honda had hoped to repeat its 2011 performance and take all three titles again. Twelve wins out of 18 races gave Honda the constructors title for the 19th time (61st, counting all GP classes). Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner did solid work for the Repsol Honda Team, appearing together on the podium eight times, and Repsol Honda had podium finishes in every race of the season to gain the team title again. A number of factors combined to keep the riders championship out of Honda hands this time, though. The first half of the season was extremely difficult for Honda as the team struggled to adapt to a last minute minimum weight rule change, followed by new tire specs. The story changed in the season’s second half after the introduction of the new bike, redesigned to meet the rule and spec changes. The Honda riders could now use the full potential of the RC213V and start clocking up wins, but it was just too late for the title. Casey Stoner, last year’s champion, had already decided to retire at the end of this season, and an unfortunate injury prevented him from reaching higher than third place overall. Stoner’s replacement in the 2013 Repsol Honda Team will be Marc Marquez, the current Moto2 champion. Marquez’s superb performance in the November tests in Valencia and Malaysia suggest we can expect some extremely exciting racing from this rider next season. Pedrosa continues to improve, winning seven races this season, more than any other rider. He and Marquez will make a combination to be reckoned with, and we can look forward to Pedrosa making a serious attempt at the riders title next season. In this report, HRC Team Principal Shuhei Nakamoto looks back over the 2012 season and comments on his hopes and plans for the coming year.

This season is over, you’ve completed the first set of tests for next year, and we’re now in the December-January period where tests are not permitted. I’m sure you’ve been asked these questions many times, but let’s start with your overall impression of 2012.

The big thing about 2012 was the switch from 800cc to 1000cc engines. We started getting ready for that from the beginning of the 2011 season. The first time we ran the 2012 prototype was after Round Two in Spain. In the third lap of that test Casey effortlessly outdid his previous personal best on the 800cc in the 2011 Spanish GP. Since we were still keeping the revs down at that point because we hadn’t fixed some durability issues with the engine, this made us very happy indeed – we knew we had put together a bike we could use. After that, Bridgestone changed their rear tire casing to soft, and we modified the new bike to match that. We still hadn’t completed that process when we had to run the RC213V in the test after Valencia, the final GP of 2011. Despite this, Dani made top test time with a speed that beat his race time in the GP. Both Dani and Casey agreed that the new bike was even better than the 800cc RC212V. But just as we thought all was safe, the minimum weight rule was changed by 4kg. That was in addition to the increase from 150kg to 153kg when the engine capacity went up from 800cc to 1000cc. We had built our bike to match the old regulations, and then we were hit with this sudden rule change. According to the rules, they have the right to do this, but I really don’t think it is fair to introduce such big changes so suddenly after we had finished testing.

The sudden rule change meant that for the first test of 2012 at Sepang, you were adding weights to various parts of the bike to bring it up to the new 157kg minimum. Adding 4kg like that disturbed the bike’s balance, and this must have made it hard for Casey and Dani.

Yes, and especially so for Dani because he is relatively small and light, so he had a very tough time controlling the balance of the bike by shifting his weight. We kept trying adding weights in different places to see what worked, and we had only found a rough solution during the first part of the season. You might think that 4kg isn’t much, but to add 4kg to a racing bike means we have to make very extensive changes, rethinking the whole machine. And then on top of that, Bridgestone brought out a new front tire with a different construction. We complained that the new tire was unusable since it didn’t have sufficient rigidity, but Dorna’s Loris Capirossi insisted that it was a better choice and so we had to fit it. So now both front and rear tires had changed and this bike we had just spent a whole year perfecting had to be rebuilt. With just three months before the season’s first race we decided to remake the bike, and began work on a new frame and swing arm.

Since Bridgestone took over as sole tire supplier, success in MotoGP has come to depend greatly on how well a bike can utilize the performance of the tires. Changing the tire specs mid-season has a radical impact on how you build the bike.

Traditionally, Hondas have not been famous for their cornering - it’s been the horsepower we get from our engines that makes us competitive. But when Bridgestone became sole supplier, the focus shifted greatly to getting all the performance you could out of the tires. In other words, we now need to build the bike to match the tires. How will the bike flex? How will tire performance degrade as the tires wear? So naturally a change in the tires mid-season now requires us to make major modifications. We could continue using the old hard construction front tires in the first part of the season, until Round Five in Catalunya, but from the England GP onward everyone had to switch to the new soft construction front tires. By Round Seven in Holland we had managed to put together a new frame prototype adapted to the new tire, and Dani liked the new bike as soon as he started using it. We tried out the new engine in this new frame at the test after Round Nine in Italy, in effect a practical test of the 2013 prototype. Dani was most impressed and switched to this new machine from Laguna Seca (Round 10). Casey also liked the new engine, but didn’t feel that the new frame changed things much, so he kept using the old frame with the new engine fitted. We introduced the 2013 design mid way through the season in order to improve stability during deceleration through changes to the engine, and to improve cornering with the new chassis. As you can see, in today’s MotoGP, building the bike to match the tires is a key factor.

Building the bike to match the tires. Speaking as a bike manufacturer, tell us what that involves.

I have no real problem with the present system of a single tire manufacturer for MotoGP. When everyone races on the same tires, the tires become purely an engineering matter. On top of that, each rider has his likes and dislikes when it comes to tires. Building bikes to meet different riders’ preferences is a new kind of challenge, and of course we welcome new challenges. From that point of view in fact, I have to say we have learned a lot since Bridgestone became sole supplier. Factory teams have the accumulated experience that lets them take on this kind of challenge, but the CRT teams don’t have that ability. When we had the multiple tire supplier system, it was possible to construct tires to exactly match each bike with each rider, and the tire could compensate for other factors. This meant that we had times when satellite team riders beat the factory riders, but that no longer applies under the sole supplier system - when things are good, they’re good for everyone; when they’re bad, everyone suffers the same. Under such equal conditions, you rarely get surprise results. With a single supplier, the factory teams are always very strong since they can apply their past experience, and this leaves little chance of winning for the non-factory riders and teams. For example, this season the podium was absolutely dominated by just three riders: Dani, Casey and Yamaha’s Jorge. There was no real chance of any other rider winning a race. This is why, from a personal standpoint, I prefer multiple tire suppliers. It simply makes the races more exciting, and I think it is better for the whole grand prix world.

Casey Stoner retired at the end of this season. Tell us some of the details of that, and what you thought of his racing in his final year.

Casey told us last year that he wanted to retire. It was after he won the Australian GP to secure the championship. He still had one more year to run on his contract with us, so he said he would ride for Honda in 2012, but it was quite a shock to hear he wanted to retire. Ever since the season began, he kept saying he wanted to make his decision public. Naturally, we really wanted him to continue with us and repeatedly tried to persuade him to reconsider, but Casey’s mind was made up. It was at Round Four in France that he finally got his way and held a press conference to announce his plans. I was OK with that, since I thought it would motivate him to win his final championship and retire in a blaze of glory. When Casey has confidence in himself and takes each race steadily, there is no other rider who can beat his speed. But then we had that crash in the final lap of Round Eight in Germany, and all our plans went out the window. In that race, he didn’t even need to win - finishing behind Dani would have been good enough. It was impatience that led to his crash and a no-point race result. And this led to his behavior at the following GP in Italy - he couldn’t calm down and get his set-up done properly, and rode a poor race to finish eighth which knocked him right back in the championship points table. If only he had finished properly in Germany, he would likely have ridden as steadily as usual in the following races and possibly would have escaped injury in Round 11 at Indianapolis. When it came to choosing his bike too, while Dani was full of praise for the new chassis, Casey reckoned it wasn’t much different and stuck with the older one. It wasn’t just Dani - Stefan liked the new chassis and used it for the final GP at Valencia, and when Alvaro tried it in the post-season test he also declared it excellent. Now that I think on it, pushing Casey to test the new bike after the Italy GP was maybe a mistake. I guess I should have waited a bit longer until he had regained his composure. If I’d waited, he might have been able to see things clearer and appreciate the quality of new bike.

I’m sure you must have been disappointed that you couldn’t persuade Casey to change his mind and stay in MotoGP.

Casey is a rider I really love. I couldn’t imagine anything better than racing with him. Sure, I wouldn’t say his personality is completely mature yet, but that’s not what we were wanting from him - we didn’t sign him because we wanted to be friends. What Casey is, is fast. Really fast. We were constantly shocked that the bikes we had made could go so fast when Casey was in the saddle. I said it before, but when Casey is confident and relaxed about his riding, there is nobody in MotoGP who can come close. After winning the Australian GP this year for the sixth consecutive time, his comment was just that he would have been even faster if he hadn’t still been suffering from an injured ankle. However fast he rides, he’s still always aiming to go faster. We held a farewell party for him on the Monday night after the Valencia GP. After the party was over, the two of us stayed on, chatting, and I found I couldn’t control my tears. I really felt so sad about him leaving MotoGP. The following day I was asked by a number of Casey’s friends what I said to him that night. When I asked why they wanted to know, they said that Casey, who had never wavered until then in his decision to retire, had said “maybe after all I should keep on racing…” Right from the first day Casey came to ride for Repsol Honda, pretty much every day he came up with something new that astonished us. I don’t know of any other rider that is such fun to work with. I hope he quickly recovers from his injury, and if he ever decides to come back he will find a warm welcome waiting. I told him that’s always on offer.

We heard that Casey himself suggested Marquez as his replacement.

Well, I don’t know if he actually said that or not, but Marc has the same kind of energy as Casey and we have great hopes for him. He has now ridden in four days of tests, one after Valencia and three after Sepang. The weather was poor on all those days and there wasn’t much time at all for him to show us how he can ride, but nevertheless, at Sepang he was putting in 2’01” laps very consistently. That time is pretty much the same as Casey and Dani, but even so Marc was constantly issuing a stream of comments such as “I need to hold the advantage at that corner so as to avoid falling” - comments he would carefully write down afterwards so as to remember them. I wasn’t there at the Malaysia test, but I heard about that from our staff and was very surprised. I’ve never met a rider who acts like that before. Mid way through the 2011 season, I said to Marc “If you move up to MotoGP next year, I’ll have a factory bike ready for you.” He wanted to take the Moto2 championship first, and I told him to go for it. The decision to offer Marc a bike had nothing to do with any sponsor - I myself decided we needed Marc on a Honda, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can do. When we first gave him an RC213V at Valencia, he got straight on and told us he already understood how to use the carbon brakes. In Malaysia, with the bike laid over he was opening the throttle exactly right. A very intelligent rider, always thinking about how to make his bike go faster, and there’s definitely something about him that is sure to attract a big fan following. Next year I see him seriously competing with Dani and Jorge, although it won’t be easy to grab a victory away from those two. Nonetheless, I reckon we could see a win by Marc by mid season.

Dani Pedrosa finished this season with seven wins, the most of any rider. What do you think? Is next season the one where he wins the riders’ title?

I think if he doesn’t take the title next year, he probably never will, but if he does then it’s quite possible he’ll go on to be champion several times. Dani used to be known for always winning two races each season, but last year, he took four, and then this season he’s managed seven wins. In the first half of this season, he was having a hard time with the bike as we struggled to fix the balance after the new weight rules, and then the tire change. But once we introduced the new bike, he just kept getting better and better. At the Czech GP he fought a tremendous battle with Jorge, overtaking then being overtaken, until finally Dani crossed the line ahead. I don’t think he has had a race like that since his days in 125cc, so I think that marked a new stage for him. He turned in a superb performance at the final GP in Valencia too, under conditions so bad that the only dry part of the track was on the line itself. He astonished everyone with the speeds he was getting there - it really sometimes looked as if the other riders were just standing still. Our new machine has much improved braking and cornering, and getting his hands on such a good bike seems to have filled Dani with fresh confidence. To me, Dani appears to have an extra sense other riders don’t - he can spot the smallest things, things that others never feel. He will quickly become aware of subtle changes, for example when the track surface starts to lose grip. The minus side to this is that it can make his riding over cautious, but this year he overcame that tendency and got it just right. He’s beaten his big rival one on one, ridden through the rain to win at Malaysia, managed to keep his speed high even in wet conditions, which were previously his weak point. There’s no question about it - Dani has progressed to another level and is now a very strong competitor. I’m so confident that he will take the title next year, I can’t really imagine not seeing him on that podium.

2013 will be Stefan Brandl’s second season in MotoGP and Alvaro Bautista’s second since he switched to Honda. What are your impressions of these two riders?

Stefan missed so many chances, including in the final race, for a podium place that I sometimes wondered what he was doing, but overall he has improved just as I was expecting him to. He is an intelligent, educated rider, who uses his brain. Stefan is the only German rider we have in MotoGP. I’d say he is an important rider, not just for Honda, but for MotoGP in general and I hope he keeps on aiming for the top. Next year, Marquez, his old rival in Moto2, will be joining us in MotoGP and I think this will also help Stefan to develop his skills. Alvaro’s results on the other hand, were a bit of a disappointment, to tell the truth. If we include his time with Suzuki, he has much more experience in MotoGP than Stefan, so I thought we would be seeing better results. He was on the podium twice this year, but I want to see him up there much more often next year. He has to get rid of his habit of riding like he’s still in 250cc. Of all our Honda riders, Alvaro is the one I feel needs to try hardest next year.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with us. Could you finish by summing up your thoughts on 2012, and tell us your goals for next season?

In general, over the course of this year our bikes got better and our riders got stronger. We had a big setback when the weight rules and tire specs changed right at the start of the season - as I told you earlier, I don’t think that was fair, and I hope it’s never repeated. With such a handicap, taking our already finished bike, rebuilding it completely and then going on to win - I have no complaints about our performance. It’s a pity we didn’t get the riders title, but I feel we achieved something as constructors. Next year’s goals? Of course I’m aiming at the triple title. But in racing, nothing is sure, you never know what will happen. If you lose, you just have to try harder to win, and all we can do is try our very best to make a winning bike. Next year’s testing starts from February in Malaysia, and we can’t afford to take any time off before then. Our goal next year is to win all three titles, and forget the disappointment of not getting the triple this year. Next year we’ll again be doing our best to live up to the expectations of our fans, and I’d like to say how grateful I am for everyone’s support this season.